Terrafugia has requested an exemption from the FAA to allow its Transition roadable aircraft — known by most as a flying car — to weigh up to 1,800 pounds and have a stall speed of 54 knots and still be classified as a Light-Sport Aircraft (LSA), according to a report at AVweb. The LSA rules set the maximum weight at 1,320 pounds and a maximum stall speed of 45 knots. “I think we make a very strong argument that these changes are in the public interest,” Terrafugia CEO Carl Dietrich told AVweb. The added weight is necessary to meet national highway standards, Dietrich said, and those features add safety to the airplane, not only by making it more crashworthy, but also making it more likely that pilots will land in marginal weather and choose to drive instead of pushing forward to their destination.

Terrafugia’s prototype street-legal aircraft, the Transition, has moved into Phase 2 of its six planned phases of flight-testing, said company officials, who note the prototype won’t be at next week’s AirVenture in Oshkosh as they don’t want to disrupt flight tests.

The Transition Roadable Aircraft, developed by Terrafugia, Inc., makes its auto show debut at the 2012 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS), April 6-15 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City.

Moller International, Inc, the developer of the Skycar aircraft, the Rotapower line of rotary engines and the Aerobot line of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), reports it has completed the initial design phase for two new Skycars, which may qualify under the FAA’s Light-Sport Aircraft (LSA) category.